The NY Post and Gothamist both recently reported that Roosevelt Island's favorite (cough,cough) supermarket chain, Gristedes, may consider entering bankruptcy. According to the NY Post:

This billionaire is crying poverty.

Gristedes owner John Catsimatidis has threatened to shutter the supermarket chain if he can’t renegotiate terms of a $3.5 million wage settlement with his workers.

The once -- and possibly future -- mayoral hopeful recently told a judge that “Gristedes is suffering” due to the weak economy and last year’s bankruptcy of grocery giant A&P and its Food Emporium chain....

{UPDATE 9/22 - Had a telephone conversation with Gristedes Chairman John Catsimatidis who emphatically stated that Gristedes is not considering in any way going into bankruptcy. Mr. Catsimatidis was very pleasant and emphasized that if there are problems with the Roosevelt Island store he wants to know about it. Will have more on this later.}

Back to the original story from 9/21.
Many Roosevelt Island residents over the years have expressed the fervent wish that the Roosevelt Island Gristedes be replaced with another supermarket. If Gristedes does go into bankruptcy, that may present an opportunity for new Main Street landlord Hudson/Related to bring in another Roosevelt Island supermarket operator.

One of the benefits of having Hudson/Related as the new Master Leaseholder and operator for the Roosevelt Island Main Street stores instead of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) is that, unlike RIOC, Hudson Related has the expertise and ability to enforce lease provisions that Gristedes and other current tenants may not be complying with and evict them if legally feasible.

What's the latest on the Roosevelt Island Main Street retail situation? Hudson/Related took over Main Street retail operations from RIOC in August. Hudson/Related representatives have been meeting with residents and store owners recently including a September 15 meeting with Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) President Matt Katz, Island Services Committee Chair Aaron Hamburger and Planning Committee Chair Frank Farance. I asked the RIRA meeting participants to comment on the meeting.

According to Mr. Katz:

The Roosevelt Island Residents Association has arranged a Town Meeting to supplement the retail surveys distributed throughout the Island by the Hudson Company. The purpose is to offer residents an opportunity to meet with the Master Lease holders and to engage in a conversation as to what kind of shopping and restaurants we want and how to make our retail corridor more attractive. We have set Thursday, October 20 at 7:30 p.m. for this important meeting, which will be held in the main sanctuary of the Good Shepherd Community Center. This forum may be the only opportunity for the Roosevelt Island community to share their needs and preferences with the developers and we hope for a large turnout.

Matthew Katz

President, RIRA

Mr. Hamburger added:

We had a very good meeting with Dave Kramer and Andrew Jackson. Basically, Dave talked about his concept of making Main St the vibrant center of our "village".

We didn't get any details, just his general thinking. We did help him plan a community meeting which will probably occur in late October. We're having troubling scheduling at Good Shepherd - they seem all tied-up every Tuesday & Wednesday evening .

Anyway, the meeting will likely start with a power-point presentation by Hudson-Related, then thrown open for the questions, comments, etc. from the public.

and Mr. Farance:

Matt Katz (RIRA President), Aaron Hamburger (RIRA Island Services Chair), and I (RIRA Planning Committee Chair) met last Thursday with David Kramer and Andrew Jackson. Mr. Katz had called the meeting so we could plan for community meetings on the Retail Master Lease effort.

Here's some of the key points discussed in the meeting:

- Mr. Katz would call for a town meeting (since scheduled for October 20, 7:30 PM at the Good Shepherd, 543 Main Street) where the community could provide input. We agreed that Mr. Kramer would "set the stage" with his own Powerpoint presentation to inform the community of his ideas and plans. (Note: A similar approach was taken with Hunter College and Public Safety in prior town hall meetings.)
- There was a lively discussion on the removal of the windows in the arcades in Eastwood and Westview. I made the point that the arcade, and the weather protection afforded by the windows (rain, snow, wind), is REALLY important to Northtown residents. I think Mr. Kramer now understands this. Regardless, Mr. Kramer will have to get permission from the building owners to do some of his refurbishment work. I pointed out the residents have a close relationship with the owners of each building (Westview, Island House, Eastwood have tenants associations; Rivercross is a co-op), so Mr. Kramer will need their support if he wants to make changes.

- Mr. Kramer envisions the merchants all paying "market rates".

- Mr. Katz noted that the mom-and-pop operations have been more connected with the community, while the chain stores don't really participate. Mr. Hamburger disagreed with this perception. Mr. Kramer said he's OK with mom-and-pop operations as long as Roosevelt Island is their third or fourth store, not their first store.

I've asked for the raw data from the survey so we can do other analyses.

In a follow up E-mail with Mr. Kramer, I pointed out that Northtown and Southtown are different marketplaces with different clientele: China 1 has a $4 meal for kids, and Trellis has a $6 kids meal with drink and dessert, meanwhile a kids meal at the Riverwalk Bar and Grill is about $12 (with drink/dessert), and Fuji East is about $20-25 per person. A good number of people I know (including from Southtown) don't/little patronize Southtown restaurants because of the higher prices. Alphonse, Sal, and Jonathan are nice guys and I wish them well, I'm just pointing out that there are different markets and different price points. In other words, we still need that $4-6 kids meal (or maybe we still need two nail salons).

Mr. Kramer responded with "As far as I'm concerned, there's a wide range of incomes throughout the entire neighborhood, and the retail mix should reflect that", and I think that is a fine response. Mr. Kramer feels that higher rents would be offset by higher volume, which he hopes will come through his refurbishment of the Northtown retail area. As a followup, I posed the following:

To Mr. Kramer: Just out of curiosity, would you agree that the steady state of businesses is reaching the right equilibrium of growing while maximizing profit? Or said differently, if there is no growth potential, then all that is left is maximizing profitability ... money spent on anything else (e.g., fancy store windows) that doesn't add to growth or profitability is wasted money, right? So when Jennifer Connelly's "Dark Water" was shot on Roosevelt Island [circa 2005] and they dressed us up as a "dump", some of that dumpiness is still present: the cleaners didn't change their store front from the dumpy one the movie crew painted on. The cleaners made their fee from the movie, yet even a dumpy painting didn't diminish their business ... certainly the movie crew would have restored/refurbished it. <-- supports my equilibrium comments, right? My hunch is that there aren't many retail dollars to spend. I would be happy to be proven wrong. Good luck to you!

I haven't yet received a response from Mr. Kramer. My sense is: the higher volume necessary to support the higher rents isn't there in Northtown. Or said differently, if Mr. Kramer moved Riverwalk Bar and Grill to Northtown and spent as much money as Mr. Kramer wants to make its outside look fancy, do you think Riverwalk Bar and Grill would be doing the same level of business? I don't think so because their present location is a positive factor in their business: Southtown residents can just as easily hop on the subway/tram to Manhattan or Queens. Years ago, Manhattan Park residents grumbled that going to Northtown (Trellis, Pizza, Back Page Sports Bar) was just far away enough to discourage their patronage, yet when they moved into Northtown their patronage increased.

Anyway, the community should voice its opinion. And the WIRE buildings' tenants associations will need to get active on negotiating the kinds of changes Mr. Kramer is proposing.

Below is video from September 19 RIRA Island Services Committee discussion with Mr. Hamburger, Katz and Farance reporting on the Main Street retail meeting with Mr. Kramer.

I have been told that Hudson/Related is seeking $50 per square foot for new Roosevelt Island Northtown Main Street leases. I asked Mr. Kramer earlier today to confirm that but have not received a reply yet. Gristedes is currently paying $7 a sq. ft for more than 25,000 sq. ft. of space with a lease through 2032

I asked Mr. Kramer for permission to attend the meeting with the RIRA members so that I could report on it to the Roosevelt Island community. Mr. Kramer declined, stating that he wanted an open discussion and did not want those attending concerned that their comments would be made public. I then asked the RIRA members I knew would be attending if they objected to my presence at the meeting. Neither Mr. Hamburger or Mr. Farance had any objection but Mr. Katz did object to my presence because he did not want anything to "impede the free flow of ideas". So I was not allowed to attend.

I asked Mr. Katz:

By excluding the press from a meeting composed only of the RIRA President, and two RIRA committee chairs with Hudson for the reason that it may "impede the free flow of ideas" can only increase the public perception that something is being kept secret.

Is there anything you might say at this meeting that you are not willing to say in public? i doubt that and I doubt that applies to Frank or Aaron either.

Mr. Katz later wrote to me:

The discussion was frank and informative. I really think that it would have been less so had the press been present. Nevertheless, we discussed dates for a community Town Meeting in October, and I’m working to finalize a date. I’ll let you know just as soon as that’s accomplished.

78
comments
:

Joshua Eisenberg
said...

Public meetings with press is no way to get this done. It will only impede progress. RIRA officers are elected by the island residents to represent their interests. If the RIRA board members cannot be trusted to do that and we have to have a public meeting to get everything done, then what's the point of having a RIRA in the first place. Additionally, just because a member of the public or a journalist has an opinion, doesn't mean that opinion is informed enough to tackle issues like commercial retail.

only 1470 people voted for the RIRA people this past year...that being said that says it all for just what the islanders think of RIRA. Same old thing year after year...the key is to get people to vote for people that can be trusted to inform and take care of the residents and their needs and bring them to light...not just personal preferences and wants and desires that have been long dreamed of by those now in charge.

We all live here together and should come together as one group of people, not Northtown and Southtown etc....

Segregation went out long ago and time for a new day on RI and with the social club known as RIRA!

"Mr. Kramer said he's OK with mom-and-pop operations as long asRoosevelt Island is their third or fourth store, not their first store." In other words, chain stores only. How many independent business owners have four retail stores in NYC? Thanks Kellner & Lappin - by hiring these idiots to manage our retail ops you put at least a half dozen business owners and their employees out of work and left RI with what's certain to be a mini mall main street.

Gristedes is NOT Filing BankruptcyThe NY Post Never Said we are Filing BankruptcyI Do Not now who the NY Gotham is probably some BloggerThe Roosevelt islander should Check References before PrintingSuch stuff.......If you want the Real Story Call our office and Ask MeJohn CatsimatidisChairman Gristedesjac@Gristedes.com

I can accept that some people want to keep our lottery store seller, etc., but, please, please, Hudson-Related -- have some pity on the rest of us. This is a MIXED-INCOME community and the higher incomes are not confined to Southtown. And, believe it or not, some Northtowners actually venture south! And some, even to Manhattan! Once again, I urge you to spend a couple of days at the subway station to observe the bags and packages being carried from Whole Foods, Gourmet Garage, Citarella, and the real Greenmarkets. We are not big enough to support a store like Citarella, it is true. My point is that there is a market for some better stores. Additionally -- even though RIRA likes to pretend that we are an independent small town -- we are a neighborhood in NEW YORK CITY -- one subway stop from midtown Manhattan. If there were some interesting stores here, people would come to shop in them, just as some Roosevelt Islanders shop off-island. Please use some creativity.

A side from you off topic tirade playing the 'victim' card for all my troubles and society's troubles, I will say that I think you are completely wrong and that RI, like the rest of Manhattan can support a much higher level of quality in its retail stores. Really, what are you going on about? Even stores in LIC (food mostly) are as expensive (or more) than around Wall Street/Ground Zero.

BTW - its not just 'Rich Yuppies' who have money; I and plenty of other city kids of all colors and backgrounds who went to public school are doing pretty damn well.

All that said, all I ask for is a Liquor store and to fine any place that sells a 6 pack of beer for 13 freaking dollar.

Sure, you can get a cheap kid's meal at China 1 or Trellis, but Trellis has been closed down twice for health code violations (the last time I ate there, I was served a salad garnished with a fly) and China 1 was graded a B. We don't need to sacrifice cleanliness for a cheap meal. We really don't. Let's give a new restaurant a chance to come here and prove it.

I knew it was too good to be true. We'll never get rid of Gristede's, even though that would be the one thing more than any other that would immediately improve living here. Does anyone shop there except out of dire necessity?

Frank, I know the point you're trying to make is about maintaining some economic diversity in Main Street options but let's not namecheck Trellis and China 1as examples of how things should be. Those are BAD restaurants.

If you really are Chairman of Gristedes, do you think you could clean up the Gristedes on RI? Maybe remove all of the dust covering the beer, too. Also, do you think you could stop charging 13 bucks for a 6pack of Sam Adams? I mean really, that is pretty bad gouging.

That was the Gristedes Chairman who responded.I had a very pleasant conversation with him and he strongly advised anyone who has complaints with the service at Roosevelt Island Gristedes to report them to this email address.CustomerService@gristedes.com

It's not the service -- its the quality and prices. For example -- what happened to Murray's chicken? Too good for Gristede's? Why is Kerrygold Irish butter $2.79 a half-pound at Trader Joe's and $3.89 at Gristede's? I'm sure TJ's isn't losing any money on it.

My point was not for the specific $4-6 meals that Trellis and China 1 offer, but that we need to have merchants that provide that kind of price point for food.

If we don't get economic diversity, then food trucks might be a possibility, too. They could park on the opposite side of the street from 10 River Road (next to the red bus turn around), or in front of the post office, or under the motorgate ramp (where the green market is), near the subway, or somewhere else. Maybe food trucks will become necessary, or maybe not if we have merchants that have economic diversity.

Regarding the restaurants, go to "http://a816-restaurantinspection.nyc.gov/RestaurantInspection/SearchBrowse.do" and search for zip code 10044. You'll find the following results (and points):

I'm guessing that the Grill is looking for a re-inspection, which is why it says Grade Pending.

I hope the restaurants resolve their issues. It was pointed out that Trellis was closed years ago, but the past 2 years they now have A grades. If Riverwalk, Nonno's, and China 1 improve their grades, shouldn't we offer them the acknowledgement of their efforts, or will we forever blame them?

According to your link, Trellis had a score of 45 as recently as this past April. That's only 3 points less than when they were shut down in 2008. I agree we should have restaurants with different price points on the island. I just really think we can do better. I think we deserve better. It's about more than price.

In answer to your question, Frank, maybe I'm too closed minded, but as soon as insects are discovered in the food, squirrels are observed in the restaurant after hours, and as soon as they get shut down twice by the board of health, I generally close the book on that place forever no matter how hard they try to turn things around. Thanks for passing along the information about Nonno's and Riverwalk. That's sad to hear but I'm glad to know.

In your next interaction with Kramer, please make sure he knows that residents like me (not a millionaire, folks, trust me) consider the standard of quality in the current Main Street businesses to have dipped so low that we are willing to part with the $4-$6 price point if it means better stores and restaurants moving in.

A score of 45 in April 2011? I find that hard to believe. If they did have that score, then their A-grade from last year would have been removed by an inspector. But their A grade has been up continuously, so I doubt they had a 45 this year. Could you check if those points were in April 2011? Thanks.

I hear your point, I'm not going to attempt to change your mind, and I'm not defending Trellis. However, I you think about this because the same kind of conversation came up in with the Public Safety town hall meeting 2 years ago: everyone has at least one good and one bad experience with Public Safety, does that mean we, collectively, choose to think about them negatively? There was a shift in thinking about Public Safety from that point onward.

I think it is hard to expect perfection in any business operation, so how should we set our policy on the acceptability of merchants? For restaurants, there is an independent authority (the City) who grades them. Maybe Hudson/Related will insist upon a B grade or better. I'm not trying to formulate specific policy, I'm trying to put the complaints in different categories: measurable (e.g., letter grades; prices), qualitative (e.g., looks dumpy or neat <- requires judgment calls), and taste (e.g., don't like eggplant, so I'm not eating at Eggplant-A-Go-Go regardless of their Grade A and cheap prices).

Getting back to your point, you've made a personal decision about merchant X (Trellis in this case) based upon your experience, but does that mean merchant X should be shut down, even if they meet some agreed-upon measurable and qualitative standards? Maybe a positive aspect of Hudson/Related might be a common set of standards that these merchants must abide by. And we can have input on this topic at the town meeting Mr. Katz is convening on October 20.

Regarding your point "In your next interaction with Mr. Kramer ...", my sense is that Mr. Kramer is already thinking along the lines you suggest.

Here's the link for Trellis. If you look at the left hand side of the page, you can see that on April 15, 2011 they were given a score of 45. If you click on the date you can see a list of the violations, 3 of which are in red because they are considered critical. I think the reason they never lost their "A" is because they were given until 6/22/2011 to rectify the issues. Thanks for the link, by the way. Very informative.

Cost does not necessarily equal quality. Riverwalk is charging more than Trellis, yet receives a C grade vs. Trellis' A grade. There's always room for improvement with any business - but why deprive residents, not all of whom are millionaires - a reasonable, quality dining option simply because Kramer has to extract his pound of flesh -- in the form of $50/sq ft rents -- from Main St businesses, or else they're out of business. They are out of business because of the greed of Kramer and RI residents are out of luck once they realize there is no affordable, quality restaurant left on RI.

The letter grades are not a measure of "quality," only of how closely the restaurants conforms to the regulations set up by the examiners. No one wants vermin in a kitchen, of course, but some of the other regulations --- I'm thinking of the necessity of keeping salads at a certain very low temperature -- seem, in fact, to undermine quality.

In the new Wire leaflet that is printed, I notice that in Matt Katz's little bit he writes, he has mentioned the words, I, me, or mine about 26 times. Tell, me, you think he has OUR best interest Mr. Kramer? Please note that when you or your assistant speak with him, he is going to give you " his" point of view and tell you what "he" and his wife or friends or his neighborhood want. Just remember that. When is his reign up anyways? His column is becoming more and more like an autobiography each time. Oh, what color is your new bike Matt? What did you and your wife the secretary bring back from your safari?

LOL! Why is it called RIRA colum? LIfe in retirement for Matt and Sheri is more fitting. Maybe we will hear more about their life and find it interesting. In the present there are issues that the residents live with each day and that are more important than anything he goes on and on about each time he is given a chance to write something.

we need the Thrift Store, please do not let them clost it down...it is part of the Catholic Church and helps a lot of people. A real barber shop would be good, a pet store, a shoe store, a Payless would do good here with al lthe kids and how fast they grow out of shoes, and I think a bakery, a Mexican, an Indian place, and anothe pizza place as well for the Northern part of the island.

A health food store would do well, and a CVS to give Duane Reade a run for it's money would drive the prices down !

Gristides the store has never been an issue, it was the management that ran it into the ground 3 and 4 years ago..anyone who has gone in as of the last year, would see all the shelves have been cleared and restocked and everything has been cleaned and up to date. Threre is a new manager and I wish everyone would stop badmouthing the only big nice store we have on the island...before the hurricane, I think everyone was glad it was here.

ron vass. you should hang your head in shame for what you did to the middle income working people of eastwood . many who have been forced to move because you sold us out so you can get a great deal for yourself. shame on you and all of you who were in the eastwood building committee may all of you go to hell.

BartonFinck, you are not the only one who noticed that. Matt is a joke as RIRA President. The problem, however, is that most of us knew that - but we voted him in as President anyway. Frank's style may have bothered some folks, but at least he worked for everyone. Matt doesn't. We need to vote him out in the next election. It's our Association too. He represents us to many who scratch their head. What he said about Sen. Serrano was absolutely insane. This guy has to go.

my daughter goes to high school she says to me she is getting a part time job on weekends so she are can buy clothes for school,as i sometimes cannot but them for her ,well i told her she can not get this part time job because it will put our family income over the limit for sec8 , in which i would have to pay the full market rent of my apartment which is 3300 dollars without the help of sec 8. i pay 1300 per month rent now sec 8 pays 2000 so i would only hope that my daughters new parttime job pays her 2000 a month and thats after taxes.so she gets a parttime job paying 100 per week but my rent goes up 2000 per month , what would you do .thanks to you ron vass and the ebc this is the life i am living to stay in my apartment in eastwood .and rioc you all are no better as you all let this happend

ron vass should be put in jail he collected money from all the tenants in eastwood for a lawyer during the buyout, but now i found out that that lawyer was not for tenants who were going to be placed into sec 8 because of income ,see if your incomes makes you eligible for sec8 , you were going into sec8 ,like it or not , the lawyer was for people not eligible for sec8 , so they were going to get lap which is a rent stabilized apartment plus one percent . see the lawyer represented the tenants who were not eligible for sec8 ,so the fact remains that ,sec8 tenants were not represented in this agreement ,we were placed into sec8 without a fight .ron vass collected from me and many other tenants like me with the understanding that the ebc and the lawyer will represent all of the tenants in eastwood ,but this was not the case . so i helped pay for the lawyer for lap tenants ,and no one represented the tenants being placed in to sec8 .ron vass should give all the money he collected from sec8 tenants back to us i have a copy of this agreement, and as i read it i get sick to see how ron vass and the ebc sold out the people of eastwood, i can never understand how rioc can agree to this mess . i believe the there was alot of under handed deals made between rioc , and hud, because so so many people have been forced to move in the last six years due to this agreement / why the hell do you think there are between 200 to 300 vacant apartments in eastwood. these were good hard working middle income people who were forced to move because they were not on fixed incomes. their income went up and the were no longer protected by sec8 .shame on ron vass , the eastwood building committee and rioc shame on all of you .

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Welcome to the Roosevelt Islander Online!

Roosevelt Island is a mixed income, racially diverse waterfront community situated in the East River of New York City between Manhattan and Queens and is jurisdictionally part of Manhattan. The Roosevelt Island Tramway, which connects Roosevelt Island to the rest of Manhattan, has become the iconic symbol of Roosevelt Island to its residents.

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